Brokaw signing off tonight

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

In 1986, Tom Brokaw reported on the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. He retires tonight after 21 years as NBC's anchor. NBC library photo • Jan. 28, 1986 'NBC Nightly News' Tom Brokaw's final newscast as the show's anchor 5:30 tonight, NBC • • • 'Tom's done nothing but great things with and for me, including taking me down there to spend the day with Ted (Turner) — and trying to teach me how to fish.' David Letterman, "Late Show" 'One thing I've always known about Tom is that we were going to compete based on the basic rules of journalism. We've both beaten each other on a number of occasions, and one of us almost invariably would call or drop a note saying, "Good beat." ' Peter Jennings, ABC 'This son of the South Dakota plains, this product of America's public schools and churches, still holds where he came from inside of him. And it comes across on camera and in person.' Dan Rather, CBS 'What I've seen of Tom firsthand is that he has hundreds — maybe thousands — of friends from every imaginable walk of life. ... Those human connections add a depth and a credibility to his on-air work that thousands of hours in broadcasting school could never produce.' Judy Woodruff, CNN 'His legacy also will be measured in what he's contributed to the veterans of World War II. The Greatest Generation in many ways has Tom Brokaw to thank for the credit these men and women have received in the dusk of their lives.' Bill Hemmer, CNN

Society would soon be wilder, friskier, ready to party. He'd already been there, done that.

"I majored in beer and coeds for a couple of years," says Brokaw, 64, who retires as NBC anchor after tonight's newscast.

At 20, he was a college dropout who had been fired from two radio jobs. "I was seriously adrift," he says.

At his parents' home, he watched NBC's coverage of the 1960 presidential election. "At the end of that long (night), I thought, 'Now, that is something I'd like to do.' "

He returned to college and soon was a TV newsman. He's been doing that for 42 years now, including 21 years as NBC's anchor. Tonight, he'll make a few closing comments. "It will be more of a personal farewell," he says. Then Brian Williams will take over.

"NBC Nightly News" will continue its current direction, Brokaw says, going beyond the traditional political stories. Steve Capus, who continues as producer, agrees.

"This is a 24-hour news environment," Capus says. "Many of the people who are watching us have already read the headlines on the Internet. We just have to go beyond the headlines."

So the newscast will sort of go on as before — or not.

The news of old seemed to fit cozy categories. "The news was seen primarily through the prism of white, middle-class men who lived on the Eastern seaboard," Brokaw says.

Some of that changed with the arrival of female and minority reporters; more changed when the networks were anchored by folks from elsewhere — a Texan (Dan Rather at CBS), a South Dakotan (Brokaw) and a Canadian (Peter Jennings at ABC).

Rather and Brokaw also broke from the white-collar focus. Both are the sons of working-class men.

"It's always been an important part of my life, because it's from whence I came," Brokaw says. "So much of my life has been in Montana or South Dakota."

Montana is his favorite vacation spot — a place he'll spend some retirement time. South Dakota was where he grew up.

"It was a lot of people with strong backs and gifted hands and work boots," Brokaw says.

There's a flip side to rural life, though. "It instills a great curiosity about what was going on in the rest of the world, because there was not a lot going on around me."

So Brokaw had wanderlust. In high school he was president of the student body and, he says, sort of a "whiz kid." Then he went to the University of Iowa and deflated.

"I didn't flunk out, but I didn't do very well, because I spent most of my time on the party circuit," Brokaw says. "I continued my wayward ways; I had a couple of radio jobs I got fired from."

One firing came after he left during his shift to attend a friend's wedding. Another came after an argument with the station owner one week into the job. "1960 was not a great year for me," he says.

He'd decided his true passion was for Meredith Lynn Auld, a high school classmate who is a former Miss South Dakota.

"She had completely written me off, saying, 'Don't bother to call or darken my door,' " Brokaw says.

His new resolve, he says, was a combination — a renewed interest in TV news and the need to "win back Meredith's esteem."

Both apparently succeeded. In 1962, Brokaw graduated from the University of South Dakota, got a TV job and married Auld.

They have three daughters and much prosperity. She's an author; he became NBC's White House correspondent in 1973, its "Today" host in '76 and its sole news anchor in '83.

He'll continue to do some documentaries, possibly as early as next spring, but he'll relax first.

His dad once started to retire then changed his mind, Brokaw says. "He said, 'I want to plow snow for another year.'

"Well, I don't want to plow snow for another year."